Climb
by TreacleTart301
Summary: A smirk crosses your face as you imagine their reactions when they realize you've counted how many times they've called you a toad or insulted your favorite pink bow and cardigan.
You are often described as malicious and scheming, but only by people who don't know you well, or at least that's what you tell yourself. Motivated, driven, and ambitious would be the words you might choose instead. It seems to be a nuance that is lost on most people and something you've struggled with most of your life.

As long as you've been alive, you've known that you wanted to make it to the top of the ministry and that's something you've been told repeatedly that you can't do. Now that you've finally got your foot in the door, nothing will stand in your way. Not unfair characterizations of your personality. Not the gossiping women who have always spoken badly of you. Not the men who make you retch and cringe with their overly friendly greetings. No. Nothing will stop you.

Even in this post-war ministry, you are aware that blood status matters and you are determined that no one will ever look down on you for your roots because you will completely re-write them until only a sparkling resume is left. No one will ever know about your muggle mother or your squib brother. You'll have a harder time pretending that your father wasn't a janitor at the ministry once, but if anyone asks about him, you'll say that the matching last names are a mere coincidence. Yes, by the time you are done, your abomination of a family will be transformed into sparkling, pureblood, high society types.

Leaving school, you were able to get a position in the Ministry straight away. A few subtle suggestions to several highly placed ministry officials seemed to make an internship miraculously appear. Promises helped you ensure that the internship was yours. You might've had to pull strings to get there, but you refuse to let that define your career. Just like the cream, you will rise to the top.

Within your first few months in the ministry, you've already been able to move from an internship to a paid position by stealing one of the other office lady's report on the Death Eaters in the Post-Voldemort era. It went into great detail about how they used and were still using magic improperly to support their cause. You suppose the author of it would be upset that you took it, except she doesn't even remember that she wrote it. You were always proud of your ability to modify memories.

Now that you're receiving attention from the right people, your next move is to dig up as much dirt as possible and use it to climb as high as you can. You'll start with the ladies in the office who whisper so cruelly behind your back, thinking that you can't hear them. A smirk crosses your face as you imagine their reactions when they realize you've counted how many times they've called you a toad or insulted your favorite pink bow and cardigan. You'll make certain that they regret it too.

A plan has been brewing in your mind for the last few months in which you'll take those stuck up, worthless brats down one by one until you are in complete control of the entire Improper Use of Magic office. Once you make it to the top, you'll quickly dispense of each of them, shifting them to lowly positions in long forgotten offices and you'll keep them there until they're old and gray.

After your domination of the office is complete, you'll work on building a close relationship with the Minister himself. You will be his confidante when he wants to go on one of his mundane rants about everything that's wrong with the world and slowly, you'll gain his trust. Once you have that, you will push for a position higher up within the ministry. A seat on the Wizengamot, perhaps? That seems well suited to a lady of your stature, you think to yourself.

Once you're on the Wizengamot you can push through the Anti-Werewolf legislation that you've always wanted to draft. Werewolves are filthy mongrels and you can't understand why no one has written any laws banning them from society. Certainly, you can't be the first person to realize how dangerous and disgusting they are. If you had it your way, you wouldn't just ban the horrific beasts, you'd kill them too, but you realize that might be a bit fanatical for the mainstream population. Disenfranchising an entire species. Okay. Systematically slaughtering them. Not so much.

After you've finished with the werewolves, you imagine you'll start working on all of the other monstrous half breed creatures. Manticores, Centaurs, Giants, and Merpeople. You'll finish them all off one by one. Then you'll go after House Elves and Goblins. Their creepy little hands have always given you the heebie jeebies. Then maybe, just maybe, you'll even have a chance to get rid of muggleborns and half bloods. Then only the purest of your kind will remain and they will thank you for protecting them from the thieves insistent on dirtying the words wizard and witch.

If you play all of your cards right, you might even have yourself set up and primed to take over the ministry when Cornelius retires or has a tragic work accident. Whichever happens first. You can picture it all clearly now. Minister of Magic, Dolores Umbridge. Yes. That has a nice ring to it.

* * *

 _Hi there!_

 _This was originally posted on HPFF for the Between Two Wars Challenge where I won 2_ _nd_ _place. Dolores Umbridge was the character I was assigned. I was actually really excited about it because I've never written her before and she is possibly one of the single most hated evil villains of all time. That being said, this was something of an experiment for me. I've written 2_ _nd_ _Person POV twice before, but this is completely different from how I've used it previously. Hopefully, it works._

 _Anyway, I'd especially love to know what you thought of this one, so please, feel free to drop me a line or two in the little box below._

 _Thanks for reading!_

 _~Kaitlin_


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